Tag: nigerian

Most of you have heard the news about the Nigerian guy that attempted to take down a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit on Christmas Day. I’m not going to go into details about badly this guy burned his ball sack or how we had some intel on him before the actual attempt. Nope. This post is about how security misses the point while adding extra steps for all of us non-wackos that are just interested in getting from point A to point B in one piece and on time.

New Rules

It seems that every time someone decides to pull an act of religious extremism or wants to make their agenda known on an airplane, TSA reacts by adding new rules to follow. A shoe bomber hops a plane? Now we have to take our shoes off when going through security. Using liquid explosives? Now we can’t carry on more than a single bag of 3 oz. containers.

Reactive. It’s after the fact. Things are banned after they are discovered, which makes it seem more like grade school than technical intelligence.

What I want to see is proactive. You know. Where instead of waiting for each and every little act that these wackos do next, we find and implement a solution that will provide the best level of safety without forcing all of us travelers to change what we do and what we can or can’t take with us on the plane after each incident.

And what do you know… they have something like that. It’s called a full body scanner.

Ok, it’s not like what was in the movie “Total Recall”… at least not yet.

This is more like what we have.

This is what airport security should be using.

But My Privacy

But it seems there are a lot of people that don’t want the full body scanner for fear their privacy is being taken away. One such person is U.S. Rep Jason Chaffetz-R [pronounced Shove-its]. He created a TSA incident at Salt Lake International not too long ago, which prompted an investigation. And this is a guy who wants smaller government.

He felt violated by being asked to go through the full body scanner. And being frisked and felt up in the name of security is not? Please. Sure, some naughty bits can show up. That can be embarrassing. But having someone go through each and every intimate article of clothing is just as embarrassing, even more so. Nothing like someone physically fondling your thong panties or seeing your leather banana hammock in your suitcase to make you comfortable. At least with the scanner, it’s a quick view. If you are hiding something under your scrotum, you are going to get pulled. Otherwise, enjoy your flight.

Simply put, I would much rather have something that can catch most things before they happen then be subjected to constant changing rules that not only impact the travel of law-abiding individuals, but are a drain to the industry as a whole. Before too long, we’ll have more bankrupt airlines because people are choosing another form of travel.

C’mon, USA and the rest of the world. Let’s be smart about this. Implement full body scanners. That way, we can catch the freaks and what they are packing near their taints before they get on the plane. And avoid the constant unknown and unclear rules that change every time these freaks want their 15 minutes of fame or their 72 virgins that don’t exist.